Trade Union and Workers - Literature review Example

? Trade Union and Workers: Topic of Trade Union and Workers: Case- ‘Just like workers should have the right to join a trade union, employers should have the right to prevent them for doing so’. Trade unions are organizations of working people or workers with the objective of improving the pay and working conditions of their members or providing them with support and legal services. ‘Power through solidarity’ has been the basic achievement of these unions which is best practiced with the workers’ ability to engage in their ‘collective bargaining process’ (Griffin and Ebert 2005). This is when trade unions negotiate on behalf of their members, which places workers in a much stronger position than one they would be in if they bargained individually. An example of such a union has been operating since 1919, named ILO (International Labor Organization), which defines its goal as: “The primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security, and human dignity”(International Labor Office 1999). Different opportunities are offered to the workers upon their joining of these trade unions. For instance: creating better employment opportunities, promoting productive practices, providing training to adapt to technological and institutional changes, enhancing social protection, increasing safety nets and promoting social dialogue, thereby providing incentives for the workers to associate with the unions (Budd 2004a). On the other hand, the business environment itself has become pretty competitive and effective, whereby social welfare is replaced with economic welfare (Paul, et al. 2001), consumers have become more important than workers, and the work is viewed as yet another input to the production process (Budd 2004a). This situation poses a threat to employment issues, as debates over labor unions, wages, family or sick leaves, or work standards are reduced to debates over labor costs and their effectiveness (Budd 2004a). Hence, the workers have a full right to join these trade unions and actively seek to maximize their utility in proportion to the work they do. Also, in an attempt to achieve decent work, work which is not just viewed as economic activity but also is given a human face (i.e. embraced psychologically, rewarded materially, and responsible ethically or morally) (Budd 2004a), workers should join trade unions which do not just increase their efficiency but also make them more motivated, focused, satisfied and skilled hence bringing benefits to the organization as well. Therefore, union memberships should not be prevented by the employees. John W. Budd, the professor of Industrial Relations Land-grant at University of Minnesota, stressed the fact that employment objectives should not just be focused upon efficiency, but also should be focusing upon the two equally important factors, equity and voice (Budd 2004b). Undoubtedly in this competitive world, organizations should strive to utilize their resources as effectively as they can (efficiency), but a sole focus on efficiency ignores the psychological and social part of the employment relationship which means that workers should be entitled to fair treatment or rights (equity) and they should also have a say in decisions (voice) as they are more aware of current ground realities (Budd 2004b). Equity includes minimum standards like minimum wages, maximum hours, minimum safety standards, protection against unfair dismissals or favoritism, and restrictions on child labor (Budd 2004a), hence protecting the workers from abusive and unfair employment practices, which prevailed in the early 20th century, such as long hours at low wages in unsuitable hazardous conditions (Kaufman 1993). Whereas, voice includes: fair speech, protection against unfair dismissals or grievance procedures, and direct or indirect labor participation in the decisions (Budd 2004b). Workers’ participation yields more motivated workforce, better and faster decision-making procedures, improved quality of the end-product or service, and overall increased competitiveness of the business (Appelbaum and Batt 1994). According to Budd, J. W., the most critical human resources and industrial relations issue of the 20th century was the Labor Problem (1900), which revealed workers’ opinion about unfair, contentious, oppressive and exploitative employee practices (Budd 2004a). The problems included: long working hours, low wage rates, job insecurities, industrial accidents and diseases, and dangerous and unhealthy working environment. Workers had no contact with the end-product, no control over the nature or process of the work carried out, as well as no creative work offered; instead, division of labor or specialization methods were being encouraged (Budd 2004b). One of the main reasons of this labor problem was inequality in the objectives of employment relationship as discussed earlier. Hence, to meet the objectives of employment relationship (i.e. efficiency, equity, and voice), employee representation through labor unions and collective bargaining is a way to achieve equilibrium in the objectives of employment relationship. Milton Meltzer, author of the book ‘Bread and Roses’ (1999), also dealt with the tyranny and struggle which the American labor went through between 1865 and 1915. Due to the mass industrialization and changes in business environment, American labor’s skills became obsolete, they needed to relearn or retrain themselves to adapt to new methods of mass productivity and specialization, and many also had to let go of their jobs or face demotion instead. Repeated strikes and protests also failed to bring subsequent changes, even though unions also tried hard to lend a hand but managed to succeed only after the court’s decision in favor of the workers. Finally, the trade union emerged as the only viable force for the support of workers (Meltzer and Scott 1999). Therefore, workers should not be prevented from joining the labor unions. However, there are some cases where unions act irresponsibly, maliciously, and in a direction which is not socially and ethically desirable, thus, in such cases, employers’ prevention of the workers from joining unions becomes valid. Whether unions are good or bad - depends on how one thinks labor markets and employment relationship work (Budd 2004a). There are four schools of thought on this issue whether labor unions are good and bad, and each has its own findings and conclusions, which are all contradicting each other’s perspective. Neoclassical Economics view labor unions as bad unions (Budd 2004b). This school of thought believes labor unions are monopolies that enable select few to benefit at the expense of the others. Many workers do not seem to have any problems with their employers, and are quite satisfied with their jobs, but these unions, as they get paid for such actions, sometimes tend to create or stimulate irrelevant and nonexistent issues so as to get benefit from the clashes. Similarly, another school of thought, Human Resource Management, views labor unions as unnecessary (Budd 2004a). This school of thought claims that human resources department is effective and the best at making policies. Also, labor unions add unproductive conflict, which is not in the best interest of the organizations. Organizations tend to minimize cost and maximize productivity as much as they can from the available resources. They tend to cut down costs and increase working hours to be competitive and effective which is a pretty fair generalization, because in this fast changing and ever competitive age, if businesses need to make sure of their survival, they must be competitive. People, especially workers, fail to understand that if businesses do not employ these tactics, they will fail to survive and workers, who at the moment demand more leisure, would not have work as these businesses will be forced to shut down. Conversely, there are two schools of thought, who consider labor unions important: Industrial Relations and Critical Industrial Relations. Industrial Relations view labor unions important as, according to them, they are essential to counter corporate bargaining power and to balance efficiency, equity, and voice in the modern democratic, capitalist societies (Budd 2004b). According to Critical Industrial Relations, labor unions are important mechanisms for protection of workers; struggle against capitalists, and for providing a forum for the workers to voice their perspectives (Budd 2004a). Therefore, it can be seen that there is no definite answer to the question: ‘whether labor unions are good or bad.’ Meticulously reviewing each school of thought and ‘the labor problem’ reveals that the evaluation of labor unions fundamentally depends on the nature of the work, the operations and function of labor market, the nature of the employment relationship conflict, and the importance of employee voice (Budd 2004a). Hence, it is clear that labor unions can both be good or bad. In the latter case, it is true to say that, just like workers should have a right to join trade unions, employers, too, should have a right to prevent them from doing so. Numerous empirical studies of U.S. labor unions reveal how the power of unions can sometimes be a threat and danger to businesses. For instance, some of the U.S. unions are investigated to have undesirable or adverse effects on businesses, such as, less job satisfaction amongst the workers, reduced worker turnover, reduced profitability of the businesses, presence of grievance procedures in the employment contracts, workers always complaining about the wages or salaries, and workers always pressing to get more rights, more say in the production processes, more fringe benefits, more appraisals and more promotions (Freeman and Medoff 1984). Labor Unions may also make use of some practices or tactics which bring adversities to their Organizations. Chief among these union tactics are the strikes, which may be supported by ‘pickets’ and ‘boycotts’, and the ‘work slowdown’ (Griffin and Ebert 2005). Strikes occur when employees temporarily terminate the job and refuse to work. For example, the Teamster Union struck United Parcel Service (UPS) a few years ago over several non-economic issues. Also, recently, the same union (Teamster) struck another company, Union Pacific Corp, over wages and new jobs (Griffin and Ebert 2005). In picketing, workers march at the entrance with signs and boards to show their grievances. A boycott is when all union members boycott the goods of the targeted business; they even urge consumers to boycott the products. Work slowdown is when workers intentionally and maliciously perform jobs at a very slow pace. This is when Labor Unions can benefit from their power and devastate their targeted businesses by publicizing negativities about the businesses. Here, employers get the rights to prevent workers for joining unions. Like workers, employers also can employ tactics to prevent workers from joining the unions. The technique these employers use to combat the power of labor unions is called ‘Union Busting’. These are usually employed by the employers to prevent expansion or formation of labor unions. In the US, the union busting is a multi-billion dollar industry (Logan 2004). However, it is widely considered illegal because, according to Article 23 of the United Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), every individual must have a free right to join or form a trade union. Some of the busting techniques that are employed are: strikebreakers (i.e. employing a permanent or temporary replacement for the striking worker), lockouts (i.e. when workers are denied access to the workplace or the firm), dismissals or terminations of employment, and permanent replacements for the striking workers. But then the problem arises with some of the union busting techniques that these employers or union combating agencies employ. They try every possible way to combat this united force of labor unions, and for that they go anywhere from defaming the activists, discrediting union activities, establishing tensed relations with their immediate supervisors, to planning ruthless campaigns against the activists, employing dirty tricks to oppress their united power and even taking away their jobs (Levitt and Conrow 1993). Martin Jay Levitt, the author of Confessions of a Union Buster(1993), himself was a union buster who achieved great success, amassed huge wealth, and gained high socio-economic status by being part of various union-busting campaigns, but - at a cost of family, friends, health and respect. He spied into the personal records of activists, police files and personnel, credit as well as medical history of the activists, as well as their family lives in an attempt to exploit their weaknesses and combat the union power; however, late in his life, in 1987, watching his associates squishing workers cruelly, destroying the company working environment and completely devastating the companies financially to amass their own wealth, he came to realize the ‘dirty business’ he was part of; thus he remained guilty throughout his life (Levitt and Conrow 1993). To sum up, it is quite evident by now that there is no such definite answer to whether employers should have a right to prevent workers from joining unions. It depends on whether the union is good or bad which in turn depends on factors like labor market and employment relationships. However, if granted the rights, employers also need to limit down their busting techniques to some extent. On the other hand, if not granted the rights, workers need to overview some of the malicious policies of their unions. List of References Appelbaum, E. & Batt, R., 1994. The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States. Ithaca: ILR Press. Budd, J., 2004. Achieving Decent Work by Giving Employment and Human Face. Geneva: International Labour Office. Budd, J., 2004. Labor Relations: Striking a Balance. NY: McGraw-Hill. Freeman, R.B. & Medoff, J.L., 1984. What Do Unions Do? NY: Basic Books. Griffin, R.W. & Ebert, R.J., 2005. Managing Human Resources and Labor Relations. In Business. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp.229-32. International Labor Office, 1999. Decent Work. Geneva: International Labour Organization. Kaufman, B., 1993. The Origins and Evolution of the Field of Industrial Relations in the United States. Ithaca: ILR Press. Levitt, M.J. & Conrow, T., 1993. Confessions of a Union Buster. In Confessions of a Union Buster. New York: Crown Publishers. pp.1-5; 239-259; 287-290. Logan, J., 2004. The Fine Art of Union Busting. New Labor Forum, 13(2), pp.77-91. Meltzer, M. & Scott, J.A., 1999. Bread & Roses: The Struggle of American Labor, 1865-1915. UK: TextStream. Paul, O., Kochan, T., Locke, R. & Piore, M.J., 2001. Working in America: A Blueprint for the New Labor Market. United States: MIT press. Read More